this is my favorite way to cook.....spontaneous. maybe a little bit of forethought. but certainly not anything planned like creating a regular menu. playing with ingredients you have on hand. (the pacojet is a saviour in this case, with about 20 different ice creams and sorbets wrapped in the freezer). especially when it is for someone who works in the kitchen and sees your food day in and day out. how do you surprise them?it reminds me of going to see some of my favorite bands live. you know the songs. you can sing along. but then they throw in little twists, different solos, changing the tempos. maybe a bit of a new song that is unfamiliar but will become a new highlight.

here we start with an "american" parfait. grapefruit cream, pistachio cake, grapefruit dice, basil seed caviar...very light on the palette but with multiple textures and high acidity

next up were apples(sliced, compressed in syrup, and cooked sous vide), oatmeal ice cream, oatmeal streusel, and foie gras powder. the apples were sweet with just a touch of texture, drizzled with some apple cider vinegar coulis (fluid gel), and a powder made of foie gras fat and tapioca maltodextrin. would people want that on the regular menu? i'd love to put it on....

the cook who's name is michael brought in some drinks for the cooks before he ate. i chose a bottle of orange crush. something about soda in glass bottles can't be beat. so how about some tableside orange crush. a swirl of coconut and tangerine sorbet with meyer lemon marmalade and frozen white chocolate powder. the server then poured the soda tableside. gimmicky?maybe. but the bottle was opened a la minute for optimum carbonation. tasted like a creamsicle.

we ended with some soft chocolate ganache, passion fruit gel, candied yuzu, milk chocolate-passion fruit ice cream, and praline croquant. forgot to take a picture of this. maybe we will pick one up later.all in all, the night was fun and inspires me to play around more.